By Amin Kef-Ranger
Alhaji Umar N’jai, who is a Senior Scientist, Professor, Panafrican Scholar, Founder & Chief Strategist of Project 1808, Inc., and Freelance writer has stated that at the National Fulbhe (Fula) Cultural Festival last year (November 2021), he gave a tribute to the late Businessman/Entrepreneur Extraordinaire, Alhaji Mohamed Bailor Barrie aka Bailor Barrie and learnt a thing or two about a creative genius with little formal Western Education, but able to build a multi-million dollar international industry that span automotive dealership, diamonds, rice, consumer goods import-export, hotel chains, and so on.
He continued that all of that comes from humble beginnings at Badembaia-Sokurala, Kabala, Koinadugu District.
According to Alhaji Umar N’jai, Bailor Barrie was the first man to use helicopters as air taxis in Sierra Leone, the first Sierra Leonean to break into the European and Lebanese dominated car dealership and diamond export successfully establishing a store in Brussels, Belgium, which enable him to cut out the middle man and offer direct sales of diamonds to clients.
He mentioned that at a time when the country’s intellectual and academic discus is shifting towards entrepreneurship and leadership, Bailor Barrie may have just been 30 to 40 years ahead of his time.
“Like Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Bailor Barrie entrepreneurial or innovative success exemplified academic success is not a prerequisite or sin qua non for,” Alhaji Umar N’jai argued adding how in other words, entrepreneurial success is not dependent on huge academic achievements.
He added that despite the litany of business programs, academics has never been a prerequisite for entrepreneurship or innovation as Entrepreneurship is largely based on risk taking and risk taking is largely the epistemology for innovation and entrepreneurship maintaining that successful academics are less likely to take risk.
Alhaji Umar N’jai underscored that the Spirit of Bailor Barrie is worth emulating to nurture young entrepreneurs, build our economies, and extricate us from morass of economic stagnation.
He said as we continue on the path of heavy academic education push, we must also nurture the little Bailor Barries in our midst.
“We must actively decolonize our minds from the colonial illusionary brainwash that human capital development comes only with Western education; as in the elementary school lyrics ‘we are all going to our classes with clean hands and faces, to pay great attention to what we are told. Or else we shall never be happy and clever; for learning is better than silver and gold, ”he cautioned saying the lyric represents both a superficial academic assertion and a ploy by the colonialist to loot the country’s gold, silver and diamond in exchange for some western brainwashed education that lacks commerce or entrepreneurship.
He said in essence, we got elitism in place of rural agriculture and feeding ourselves, our silver and gold ended in their hands, and we continue to obey them in a hegemonic master and servant relationship.
According to him, today, more than ever academics (capacity) along with entrepreneurship, production, and wealth generation are deemed critical for the economic freedom and development of any nation.
He said such is particularly so relevant to today’s Sierra Leone, with rising inflation and severe economic woes caused by a high import driven consumptive behavior, low export and lack of local production.
The Panafrican Scholar said to turn the economy around and curb inflation, the country will once again need the Bailor Barries that create wealth and local production along with serious academics (not Ye Dominion or Fakaroos) to provide the technical capacity for sustained growth.
He said in the last 35 years of the country’s independence, we have seen academic decadence replace academic excellence and genuine entrepreneurial wealth generation replaced by Government of the day politician wealth accumulation through corrupt means.
Alhaji Umar N’jai said hence, the result is what the country has today, economic stagnation, rising cost of living, and decadence in all sectors.
“To say that we are stuck as a nation in as much as sustainable development is concern is an understatement,” he pointed out adding that rather than the age old adage den say Bailor Barrie, you say Davidson Nicol, admonishing that we must learn to nurture them both with excellence in Sierra Leone.
He said over the years we have allowed mediocrity to creep in our systems with corruption in all sectors; fake degrees, exam malpractices, cheating in schools and colleges, and high level wealth generation through corruption.
“If we continue on this trajectory without strong leadership to curtail these practices, we will end up being a failed State; one without the ideas and the means of production to generate wealth and be self reliant,” he expressed a genuine concern.
He suggested that the country must therefore model its systems based on the academic excellence of Davidson Nicol and the entrepreneurial genius of Bailor Barrie.
“We must decolonize our educational system with both academic and entrepreneurship as well as integrate them to create a new generation of forward thinkers and transformational citizens,” he suggested going forward to say we need academics with entrepreneurial or innovative minds to transform society in the same manner of nurturing entrepreneurs with an academic spirit to promote research, development and sustainability of the business.
